JOHNSTOWN – The Lady Raiders' impressive volleyball season has the team near the top of the conference and regional standings. Also, four members of the team are near the top of the statistics charts.
Region 3 Statistics
There are 18 teams in Region 3. Thus, there are around 180 players in the region, and about 125 of them play most of their teams' minutes. Four Lady Raiders rank near the very top of four important statistical categories for that large group. (The stats listed below are for play through October 12.)
Kills per set. FM has a balanced attack that has two Lady Raiders among the region's best producers of kill shots. Katlyn Pierce is seventh in the regional listing with 3.49 kills per set. Whitney Ostrander is right behind her, at #8, with 3.37 kills per set.
Digs per set. The region leader for this critical stat is Madison Paquin of Adirondack with 6.21 digs per set. FM's Kaylee Gillen is right behind, in the #2 spot, with 6.10.
Blocks per set. FM has not one, but two players near the very top of the listing. The region leader is Shannon Higgins of Adirondack with 1.97 blocks per set, and her teammate Rachel Lumley is second with 1.66. The third and fourth spots are owned by FM's Whitney Ostrander and Katlyn Pierce, both with averages of 1.61 blocks per set.
Assists per set. Lady Raider Zara Hyde has been outstanding in setting up point-scoring shots. Her mark of 8.12 assists per set is the region's third-best. Monroe's Montana Vescovi (10.02) and Adirondack's Stephanie Gengel (9.13) have the top spots.
Hitting Percentage. Monroe's Rose Ayala leads the region in this efficiency statistic, with .469. FM's Whitney Ostrander is in second place at .450. Adirondack's Brianna Sealey is third, at .448. FM's freshman Katlyn Pierce is fourth, with a .391 mark.
Photo, clockwise from upper left: Whitney Ostrander, Zara Hyde, Kaylee Gillen, and Katlyn Pierce are all among the regional stats leaders
Conference and Regional Standings
The teams in Region 3 compete in three conferences. FM is part of the seven-team Mountain Valley Conference.
The rankings of the weekly Region 3 coaches poll are announced each Tuesday morning. The current (October 7) poll has FM ranked third, trailing only Monroe CC and SUNY Adirondack.
FM is currently tied for second place in the Mountain Valley Conference (MVC) standings. Here are the conference standings as of Sunday evening:
Adirondack (5-0 conference, 20-2 overall)
Fulton-Montgomery (3-1, 14-2)
Delhi (3-1, 14-13)
Hudson Valley (2-2, 4-15)
Herkimer (1-3, 2-19)
Mohawk Valley (1-4, 2-18)
Columbia-Greene (0-5, 0-16)
FM has two regular-season conference matches remaining. The Lady Raiders will play at Herkimer on Wednesday, with the first serve at 7:00 p.m.. FM will host Delhi in the final home match of the season on Wednesday, October 22 at 7:00 p.m.
Postseason
The MVC will hold its postseason tournament on Saturday, October 25, at SUNY Adirondack. FM finished third in the tourney last season. The Lady Raiders are aiming for the top spot this year.
The Region 3 Championship Tournament will be held on Saturday and Sunday, November 1-2, at Niagara CCC. Eight teams participate. FM will almost certainly be among those eight. The Lady Raiders are working hard to earn a high seed. If the regional tournament was held today, per the Region 3 standings, FM would probably be seeded #2 or #3.
C.J. Bonny, website writer
.
